#4 Serie A - 3 players
While Giggs played 24 seasons, yet another Italian legend is currently in his 24th season in the Italian Serie A. AS Roma’s legendary captain, Francesco Totti. Having joined the Roma youth system in 1989, he was promoted to the senior team as a teenager in 1992 and has not looked back since.
So good was Totti that he was handed the captain’s armband when he was only 22, making him the youngest captain in Serie A history. Now, 39 years old, he also owns the record for the oldest goalscorer in the Champions League among other remarkable achievements.
Italy is known for having players even beyond the age of 35 still playing first team football and Gianpaolo Bellini is another example. The left-back began his career with Atalanta in 1997 as a youth player and made it to the senior team in 1998. Now 35, he has racked up more than 400 league games for the club and still manages to get a game now and then, even playing as a right-back when the situation demands it.
Daniele De Rossi is another Italian hero who continues to play for AS Roma. After being promoted to the senior team after a year with the youth squad, the midfielder has made more than 500 appearances for the capital club and scored 54 goals. Both he and Totti won the World Cup together in 2006 and they have stuck with the club through thick and thin in spite of very little success when it comes to winning trophies.
# | PLAYER | CLUB | SEASONS |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Francesco Totti | AS Roma | 24 |
2 | Gianpaolo Bellini | Atalanta | 18 |
3 | Daniele De Rossi | AS Roma | 15 |